ScandAsia Southeast Asia - August 2011

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ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in South East Asia.

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Daily news and features here:www.scandasia.com

Coming Events

GreenBiz 2011Date: 15-16 September 2011Location: White Palace – Convention Centre, Ho Chi Minh City

European Green Business Solutions for Vietnam (GreenBiz 2011) is organized by The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) in partnership with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce (VCCI) and the Investment and Trade Promotion Center of HCMC (ITPC). An integrated B2B and B2G Tradeshow that comprises a Conference with an International & Local Exhibition and networking events covering a Networking Cocktail and a Gala Dinner. Two-day Conference and Exhibition event is coming to its 2nd year with a larger scope and scale. Further information, please visit www. greenbiz2011.com.

SSP Crayfish PartyDate: 17 September 2011Location: Mariott Hotel Manila

The most popular event of the year- the Cray fish party! Scandinavian Society Philippines invites all members and friends for a marvelous feast of crayfish, nubbe and other Scandinavian delicacies. There will be great raffle prizes to be won, contests to concur and friends to be made. Please make a reservation in advance at www.ssp.org.ph. Don’t miss the biggest Scandinavian event of the year!

SSM Crayfish PartyDate: 24 September 2011

The Scandinavian Society Malaysia will host the traditional Crayfish Party on 24 September 2011. Bring your friends and your spouse to join the most fun event of the year. Enjoy boiled fresh crayfish, Scandinavian buffet and of course Snaps! Last year this was the most popular event of the year, and this year we wish to make it an even greater success. More information will follow soon so mark your calendar and stay tuned at www.scandina-viansocietymalaysia.com.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta, Innovation Norway and In-donesia Norway Business Council are organizing a Norwegian Seafood Dinner Extravaganza on 4 October 2011. The event is part of a four day seminar, which looks at various important sectors, such as for instance Aquaculture and Marine Technology. Contact the Embassy by e-mail: [email protected] or Indonesia Norway Business Council by e-mail: [email protected].

www.flickr.com/photos/sdhoNorwegian Seafood Dinner ExtravaganzaDate: 4 October 2011Location: Borobudur Hotel

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6 ScandAsia.South East Asia • August 2011

ScandAsia News Brief

The Swedish Embassies in Hanoi, Viet-nam, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will not be closed anyway, the Swed-

ish Foreign Ministry announced on 2 August 2011. The move came at a time where the two embassies had basically already been terminated, the furniture sold, staff employed elsewhere, and the shock of the closure among absorbed by the Swedish residents and business community. Still, most Swedes welcomed the decision. In Vietnam, a Foreign Ministry spokes-woman said Vietnam welcomed the Swedish Government’s decision to maintain its em-bassy in Hanoi, confident that it would make positive contributions to promoting the two countries’ relations. The announcement explained that Swe-den’s Government and Social Democratic Party have agreed upon the appropriation

A forum on the Vietnam-Finland Innovation Part-nership Programme

(IPP) took place in Hanoi on 21 July. The event was jointly held by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Hanoi Young Business Association. IPP is an official develop-ment assistance project spon-sored by the Vietnamese and Finnish governments. Designed to help boost innovation within business, the programme en-

courages such activities as upgrading technology, improving management and developing products, services and new marketing ideas. In its first phase from 2009 to 2012, the programme will be implemented in eight cities and provinces across the country including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hue, Da Nang, Lam Dong, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho and An Giang with the initial budget of EUR6.2 billion. IPP will support small and medium sized enterprises involved in information technol-ogy, bio-technology, engineering and green energy with high priority given to projects focusing on poverty reduction. Tran Quoc Thang, IPP Director, said that Vietnamese businesses are reluctant to invest in developing products. Therefore, IPP will help promote their innovation activities and improve their competitiveness both in domestic and international markets.

Hanoi Hosts Vietnam-Finland Innovation Partnership Programme

Swedish U-turn: Embassies Not Closing!

ScandAsia Publishing Pte. Ltd. was es-tablished on 20 July 2011 as a joint venture between ScandAsia in Thai-

land and Frank Leong, who has been Sales Manager for the ScandAsia Singapore since November 2010. Frank Leong is a partner in S C Pro-duction LLP which sells advertisements for various other magazines. He will now dedi-cate more of his time to serve ScandAsia. The Publisher of ScandAsia, Gregers Moller, is excited about the expansion. “The perspective of having our own corporate framework in Singapore is excit-ing. Initially, we will employ Frank as our Sales Manager and next, a journalist will team up with him to cover the many ac-tivities in the Nordic communities in Singa-pore,” he says. Among the benefits of establishing the company in Singapore is the first three years of tax exemption for profit below 100.000 Singapore dollars. The absence of monthly withholding tax reports and payments and exemption of GST if the turnover is below 1 mill Singapore dollars facilitates business start-ups further. “Having just been through a similar process in Thailand, which took several months, the efficiency of the Singaporean government administration and bank sys-tem was amazing,” says Gregers Moller. “We had prepared all papers, so with that in place, the whole process, including opening a bank account, was done in one afternoon!”

ScandAsia Establishes Company in Singapore

Mr. Grergers Moller and Mr. Frank Leong look forward to expanding ScandAsia in Singapore together.

to the government offices, which involves cancellation of planned closures of foreign representative offices including the Swedish Embassies in Vietnam and Malaysia. It means that the funds for the govern-ment offices will be restored to the levels proposed in the budget bill for 2011 and the Swedish Embassies in Angola, Argentina, Ma-laysia and Vietnam will not be closed. The press release from the Swedish Prime Minister’s office said that the Swedish govern-ment offices will be restored as of 2012 and for the remainder of the electoral period to the levels proposed in the 2011 budget bill. This entails an appropriation increase of SEK 300 million, excluding future price and salary increases. The Swedish Government intends to draw on appropriation savings equivalent to SEK 500 million for the current year, accord-ing to the press release.

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Ethnic minority children in Laos often struggle in school because they lack knowledge of the Lao language. With

the help from the Norwegian Save the Chil-dren, hundreds of kids now have the oppor-tunity to get a better start in life, with pre-school education. Save the Children Norway has been working in Laos for more than 20 years. The organisation, with Norad funding, has developed an innovative programme to “bridge the gaps” of remoteness, ethnicity and language. The programme is focused on pre-school education, in three of the poorer provinces in the country; Sayaboury, Luang Prabang, and more recently in Bolikhamsay. Norway’s Ambassador to Laos received a warm welcome when he visited Save the Children Norway’s pre-schools. The programme funds the construction of pre-school classrooms in remote areas and provides training for pre-school teach-ers from ethnic minority communities. The aim is to prepare ethnic minority children,

Norway Secures Better Education for Laos Ethnic Minority Children

who often cannot understand or speak the Lao language, for primary school education. Norway’s Ambassador to Laos, Mr. Ståle Risa, travelled to Luang Prabang on 2 June and met with Provincial Governor Dr. Khampheng Xaysompheng and government officials in the education field to discuss the programme. He was accompanied by Mr. John Reinstein, Country Director for Save the Children Norway and his staff. A field trip to the Pak Xeng district the next day provided an opportunity for the Ambassador to see for himself the impres-sive accomplishments of the programme. Two of the villages visited were the village of Hat Houay, which is made up of the Khmu community, and then the village of Houy Pho consisting of a mixed community of Hmong and Khmu people. In Hat Houay the Ambassador had the chance to enjoy some time with the young pre-schoolers, who demonstrated - with great enthusiasm - their abilities and happi-ness at being able to attend class and learn the Lao language.

Norway’s Ambassador to Laos, Mr. Ståle Risa, travelled to Luang Prabang on 2 June and met with Provincial Gover-nor Dr. Khampheng Xaysompheng and government of-ficials in the education field to discuss the programme. He was accompanied by Mr. John Reinstein, Country Director for Save the Children Norway and his staff.



Pia Starbaek Szczepanski, newly appointed Embassy Coun-selor at the Danish Consulate and Trade Office in Ho Chi Minh City, is hoping to find growth opportunities of

Danish industries in Vietnam. She also points out that Danish companies as well as enterprises in Vietnam should consider taking advantage of one of Asia's top emerging markets. Pia’s posting to Ho Chi Minh City is due to Danish Ambas-sador to Hanoi, John Nielsen’s response to meet a longstand-ing wish of many Danish companies of making a more visible presence in South Vietnam. "I hope our assistance to Danish companies in South Viet-nam will be more focused by the strengthened office in Ho Chi Minh City," he says. Pia, who started work on 1 June 2011, said that she is cur-rently visiting a large number of Danish companies that have been here for some time, whether short or long. She believes by doing this she will be able to get an insight into the oppor-tunities and challenges associated with establishing and doing business in Vietnam. "This knowledge gives me a good start for advising the Danish companies who look at Vietnam, whether it is to estab-lish production in the country or for export," she adds. "We should give a realistic picture of what is happening in Vietnam in every respect. We also can assist companies in its initial market research and match making, as well as assisting them in establishment and recruitment of employees," she says.

New Danish Trade Officer in HCMCPia Starbaek Szczepanski was posted to Ho Chi Minh City on 1 June 2011. She hopes to find growth opportunities for Danish companies in Vietnam.

By Indius Pedersen

The Danish Minister of Education, Troels Lund Poulsen, recently visited Vietnam. The minister’s visit was a follow up on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed with the Vietnamese Minister of Education in December 2010.

The Danish Minister met during his visit in June with Prime Minister Nguyen Tam Dung and the two parties agreed to further look into strengthening cooperation on environmental education and vocational training. The Prime Minister stressed the good relations between the two countries and the increased cooperation in all fields. During a meeting with the Vietnamese Minister of Education, Pham Vu Luan, the Minister agreed to set up a Joint Steering Committee to follow up on the different activi-ties included in the MOU. The Joint Committee will prepare for yearly meetings between the two ministers to take concrete actions on activities agreed upon.

Facilitate education exportThe Danish Minister of Education, Troels Lund Poulsen, said that it had become clear tohim that avenues to export Danish education have to be created in order ot make it easier for the Danish educational institutes. "We have to regulate certain possibilities to make it easier for Danish universities, schools and higher levels to export education,” he said. “We have to conduct analyses about the problem and right after the Danish parlia-ment’s summer holiday, we have to come up with a plan for the export from Danish education system," the minister said. Anya Eskildsen, Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College, said that since the Dan-ish education is one of high value worldwide, it is a great step the Danish government has taken to make an easier and more accessible way top export Danish education. “We look forward to putting these changes into action so can start a campus in Vietnam. I am glad about this decision,” Anya Eskildsen said. Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College set up a joint education programme at BA-level in Financial Manage-ment with Foreign Trade University last year.

Minister of Education Visited VietnamDanish Minster plans to make it easier to export Danish Education.

By Indius Pedersen

Pia Starbaek Szczepanski started her posting by visiting a number of Danish companies that have been here for some time

The Danish Minister of Education Troels Lund Poulsen met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tam Dung and the two parties agreed to further look into strengthening cooperation on environmental education and vocational training. The Prime minister stressed the good relations between our two countries and the increased cooperation in all fields.

August 2011 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 9


Danish Planet is a club for Danes in Saigon organizing social activities for its members. The most important activity is organizing Danish lessons for Danish children over three years.

On 5 June 2011, Danish Planet Saigon organized a well visited Danish Con-stitution Day in Ho Chi Minh City. “We had a well visited Constitution day where the children played with each other while the adult had a good talk and made new friends. Many of the members have mixed marriages and for these non-Danish partners it is good opportunity to join a Danish event and meet the Danish culture,” says Jette Bredesen, outgoing Chairman of Danish Planet Saigon who is soon relocating from Ho Chi Minh City as her husband has got a new job.

The Danish School The incoming Chairman Hanne Østergaard has just had a baby back in Denmark. Hanne used to be the teacher at the Danish School in Saigon but has now been replaced in that function by Ditte Espensen, 35, who is from Himmerland and is educated at Aalborg Seminarium. Ditte is in Saigon because of her husband, Allan who works in the furniture business. “I look forward to start teaching the Danish children. The education is on the British International School where we have been given our own classroom. Our classes have typically from three students to ten students who all attend the British School and join the Danish class one hour per week,” says Ditte who reveals, that they are also planning to start some courses in Danish for Vietnamese partners to Danes.

Danish Constitution Day in HCMCBy Indius Pedersen

Henning and his Vietnamese wife Hoa singing the Danish national anthem. Ditte Espensen, new teacher for Danish Planet.

Jette Bredesen resigned as

Chairman and received af bottle of red wine from Niels Jorgensen.


The Passionate Danish Jungle DentistPeter Bloch is running the Tanah Merah Resort and Gallery in a small village in Bali. But the villagers won’t let him forget the fact that he is a dentist. Several times per week patients arrive early in the morning to be a part of his special concept “No Pain - No Pay.

By Bjarne Wildau

Tanah Merah Resort is owned by the Danish Peter Bloch. Part of the resort is a Gallery with an exceptional collec-

tions of thousands of fascinating items, paintings, batik, double ikat cloth, kris daggers, and even a pa-lanquin. Peter has been traveling across the eastern part of the archipelago during the past few decades so it’s not surprising that various works of art from the East adorns the walls in most of his villas and rooms. One of the best is surely the vil-la dedicated to Mads Lange. Besides a vast private plunge pool and Ja-cuzzi, the villa is decorated with sev-eral mementos from the late Danish businessman, without sacrificing its romantic surroundings so is just as suitable for a honeymoon hideaway. At Tanah Merah - it means red soil - the already clean and healthy water is enhanced by an additional spring flowing from the resort’s own well. The water has been verified by a laboratory in New Zealand as the “healthiest water ever”, the founder of the resort insures.

The storyHow did this wonderful place be-came the property of Peter Bloch? It was a beautiful day in 1995. Peter Bloch had just returned to Bali when he received a phone call. “A man insisted that the best plot of land was for sale. What could I do? I went to see the land, got an idea about the price, and called my bank right away and asked them to transfer the money, even before I met the owner,” he says. “In Asia, if you know you can’t live without this or that, then you have to act if it becomes available. If you don’t, then the opportunity can be gone before you get a second chance.” “But I got my land, and started to build my paradise. Not for me, but for all the people in the world.” “Yes! Every single person on this earth deserves to stay at least one night here at Tanah Merah,” Peter Bloch proclaims. “More and more people find us on the Internet. But we still get most of our guest from Denmark. Nyhavn Rejser and Hannibal Rejser are important suppliers of guests”, says Peter Bloch.

Still, Tanah Merah is certainly not a Danish resort in the exclusive sense of the word. When the inter-view was done, six guest came from New Zealand and four from USA.

A white parrotWhile Peter is busy telling about his life, a white parrot is sitting on his right shoulder. Since the Dane got divorced in The States a while back, he never got engaged with a part-ner again. Except with this parrot obeying the name Manis, meaning “sweet” in Indonesian language. Maybe the name relates to the relationship the Danish dentist has with the nearby village. “When I bought the land, it was just nature. Bushes, slopes, and what ever. So I hired people. Some from the village, but I needed more than 150 people and there were hardly that many in the village itself”. So Peter Bloch’s Tanah Merah Resort became a local development project. The lives and health of the families improved. Of course their dental health improved in the process. When people got a problem with their teeth, the Dane turned into a ma-gician with his “No pain - No pay” concept.

Fresh blood to the village“There is little doubt that “Tanah Merah” had a huge influence on the village,” Peter Bloch explains. The construction workers were young, single, and did what they had to do. In the daytime they built the resort. In the nighttime they went out dating with the girls. As a result, Tanah Merak also brought fresh blood into the local village. “At least half of the teen popu-lation in the village is a produce of the construction of Tanah Merah,” Peters laughs and his parrot quick-steps a few times to regain its posi-tion on his shoulder.

Mads Lange of BaliAll of a sudden Peter lifts a hand and gently removes the parrot. He has something he wants to show, he says. Two minutes later he returns with a huge book, written and pro-duced by himself as a part of the celebration of Mads Lange’s 200th birthday. Mads Johansen Lange was a broker in the lucrative slave trade

and imported Chinese kepeng coins. Lange’s business grew. He owned or hired (it is not clear which) between nine and twelve ships in the 1840s. The Dutch colonial power found him so useful that they offered him citizenship of the Dutch East Indies in 1844, which he accepted. Mads Lange lived and died in Kuta. Over centuries his grave al-most turned into a garbage dump.

First book in English about Mads Lange“It was a shame. Mads Lange was extremely important to Bali, also as a peacemaker. So I did stand up, to show respect for the past, especially for Mads Lange, and renovated his grave,” Peter Bloch explains. After the renovation the 200 Year Anniversary came closer and closer. Peter took it on him to ar-range a huge celebration with sever-al hundreds of guests, arriving from several continents. This first book in English about Mads Lange became a reality thanks to him too. It took Peter Bloch the better part of a full year to write “Mads Lange, The Bali Trader and Peacemaker”. “I printed 4.000 copies. A truck carried all the books here to Tanah Merah. But the truck couldn’t get up the slope so we had to bring at least half of the books on motorcycles. What a mess. But people were hap-py for the book, so it didn’t really matter.”

More: www.tanahmerahbali.com


The Passionate Danish Jungle Dentist

More and more people find Tanah Merah on

the Internet. But we still get most of our guests

from Denmark. Nyhavn Rejser and Hannibal Rejser are important suppliers of guests.


Swedish Motor Assembly’s Intricate Car Production

The mission of the new manager at Volvo’s assembly plant outside Kuala Lumpur is to increase their production of Volvo cars for the region.

By Joakim Persson

How does it come into existence and what procedures forego the distribution of a Swedish Volvo

in Malaysia or Thailand? And what does the future hold for Volvo cars in Southeast-Asia? The plant Swed-ish Motor Assembly in Malaysia is a good place to find out, where the new Managing Director David Sten-ström explains the intricacies behind getting Volvo cars delivered to its customers in this region. This auto assembly goes back to the inception of the Malaysian auto-

motive industry. It was actually the first such operator to start in Malay-sia back in 1967 - to assemble Volvo cars, which it is still doing today, but along with other brands. Back then assembly plants were set up in order to provide employment and to sub-stitute imports of automobiles. And to further develop the local automo-tive industry a few policies were put in place; including that a certain per-centage of a vehicle must have parts and components that are manufac-tured locally, and imposing import taxes and putting a tariff system on CBU (Complete Built UP) imports.

Wholly owned by Volvo Car Corporation, Swedish Motor As-sembly (SMA) still exists today in order to produce Volvo cars - be-cause of the cost effectiveness. “Absolutely, it’s more costly to import cars. But this car here is ab-solutely more expensive than a car from Torslanda [Sweden]. If it were not for the tax rules it would have been cheaper for me to bring a European-produced car over here,” says David as we are about to learn how complicated trade rules can be, which in Malaysia also has to do with protecting their national car in-dustry. Then, the sales organisation Volvo Cars is customer of SMA: “For many years SMA has had dif-ficulties showing black figures due to assembly cost at face value in or-der that the sales company has the edge for more competitive pricing. Nevertheless SMA still needs to be independent and responsible for it’s financial standing. This we gain from contract assemblies.” His optimal result is plus minus zero but the currency fluctuations affect so determining the transfer price in advance is tricky, explains the MD. Building a S80 in Sweden re-quires about 20 man hours while they put in 180 here! Labour is inexpensive, though, only a tenth. And yet customers are paying a lot for a Volvo car here compared to in Sweden, partly because of those national policies. David explains further: “In or-der to be classified as CKD produc-er you must send CKD kits into Ma-laysia. So our hub in Holland spends


18.5 hours, in Euro salary, re-packing material in order to send in batches of 24 cars. Compare with China which also has CKD, but there you can send part by part, so you can send whole boxes. There only 1.5 hours is spent on packing and send-ing, so that’s a difference of 17 man hours per car.” And 30 per cent of the car for Malaysia and 40 per cent for Thai-land must be local content. “We try to control this in a way so that we are at 43 per cent cost-wise, because should a price hike occur we cannot be under 40.” Certain parts are assembled on site by sub contractors, though with details that can still originate from Europe. The local content requirement intended to promote the growth of components manufacturing has however not been very successful: low level of technology transfer and development of human resources in the industry. There were too many makes and models for the assem-blers, causing too low demand for certain components and leading to the difficulty for the manufacturers to achieve the economies of scale. “It’s a huge problem for us. We are forced to take certain provid-ers. They want Volvo as a customer but they don’t want SMA! What do I produce, a 1000 cars yearly! They are forced by their mother compa-ny to deliver to us but we are sitting in a strange seat; as soon as we get any quality issue their attention level is not that high here.” “Looking closely at how I as-semble a car, there’s no such thing as an effective flow. Working on

technical improvements does not have the same leverage as working on ways of avoiding tax. I can out-source a component, which leads to extra costs, but that I can then get back on taxes with a positive effect in the end.” “One can have emotional feel-ings, or think strictly business. With-out these tax rules one would have to questions our existence. It’s diffi-cult to compete with a high volume production plant.” Today Volvo and Renault Trucks, King Long mini buses and LION light truck vehicles are pro-duced and they paint Hino (Toyota) truck cabs. Volvo car models are currently: S80, S40, V50, XC90 and XC60. S60 will be introduced in May, and V60 in August. But with David at the helm their ambition is actually to expand their markets and produce more Volvos. “We went from 300 cars to 1500 cars, and this year we are forecasting to sell a bit over 2000. For 2012 the forecast is 2600 for Malaysia and Thailand.” “I would hope we are gaining more recognition. And I think there is more focus from our home or-ganization. During the crisis period the focus was on downsizing and then a region such as this easily gets neglected because it’s too small to get attention from the board. That’s only my personal theory. At the same time as we have extremely low volumes our profit margin is among the highest in the world. We make a lot of money out of small quantities.” Coinciding with increasing sales volumes the latest ad campaign is

also out: ‘The Naughty Volvo’s Are Coming’. Even if focused on manu-facturing we get David’s take on this: “It’s a campaign to profile Volvo’s at-titude about how naughty you can be. After only one year in Malaysia I don’t know its image here but we want to get away from the impres-sion of a boxy, boring and safe car, to be exciting - which it has been for quite long already! “ In a test drive for invited motor magazines Volvo S60 was compared with Audi, Mercedes and BMW cars and the Volvo brand got fantastically positive reactions. “We did not have to be ashamed of our brand; Volvo most definitely has a good reputation for its security - and quality. And that’s my challenge to get the quality even with low volumes, which is much easier with higher volumes. The whole point here is how to teach an operator to know his job when he never gets the chance to practice in large enough cycles.” “For me as factory manager it would be best to have one brand only to serve the region. We only build Volvo for Malaysia and Thai-land but now we’re doing a pilot actually exporting to Indonesia in a last attempt. We used to have quite high volumes there before the brand was banned there due to political issues between that country and Sweden.” “And could we show that we are cost-efficient we could outcom-pete agents in Europe on cost. We could take Singapore, Brunei, Philip-pines, Indonesia and maybe Korea. Then we are talking volumes; I could fill this factory with just producing

Volvo, and that would be the ulti-mate. It’s much easier to control and having a workforce focused on only one brand.” “Quality-wise the difference be-tween Volvo and the other brands is essentially different. I cannot even place an operator from any of my contract assembly lines into the Vol-vo line; it would not work. He would not understand why we would de-mand a certain fit and finish. “ Coming from previous positions as process development project manager and technical manager Da-vid finds his position here to be less stressful than back in Sweden. “There the pressure is much larger, especially in a high volume factory. One works a lot back home. And it’s great fun and very stimulat-ing in all kinds of ways. But family life was clearly sacrificed, to express myself lightly. Here the scope of work becomes wider; you have it all but on a much smaller scale. We are not manufacturing many cars so you can always catch up,” explains David who as a result has more energy left also for his family and who thrives in Malaysia since day one. At least two more years will be they here, and perhaps longer.

Quality-wise Volvo and the

other brands are essentially different. I cannot even place an operator from

any of my contract assembly lines into

the Volvo line; it would not work.

He would not understand why we

would demand a certain fit and finish.


Nikolaj - and Bali - Fully Recovered Nikolaj Jensen entered the tourism industry when his was 22. He has hardly seen anything else since then. After almost ten year in various positions finishing as a Destination Manager for Thailand he needed something else. He went to Bali, started his own travel agency - but after a few months he and the rest of Bali was hit by the terror bombs. Then followed SARS and the Tsunami. Tough years, but last year was the best year in terms of tourism for Bali and his agency NickTours in Sanur. By Bjarne Wildau

As a destination manager you

take a lot of the pressure. For ten

years, I loved to go to work

every morning. Then suddenly I found that I

was not smiling anymore.


Nikolaj - and Bali - Fully Recovered W

hen Danish Nikolaj Jensen held the Grand Opening of his tour agency

NickTours in Sanur Bali in 2001 he wanted it to do it on the July 17 to commemorate the death of his far-ther, and at the same time celebrate the start of his new life in Bali. “First I asked my mother back in Denmark for her permission to join the two occasions,” he recalls. “Then I went to the monks - you can’t do anything important in your life in Bali without consulting the monks - and asked them if July 17 would be OK. The head monk look into my eyes in a very strange manner for a long time, and then he looked at the other monks, and then back again at me.” “Somehow I had picked the best day during the entire year. If I held the grand opening on that day, me and NickTours would have a wonderful future, I was promised.”

The bombsA few months later the terror bombs went off. Killed almost 200 people, also Danes and at least for some years the future of the Bali-nese tourist industry was put on hold. Only last year did the Balinese tourism finally start booming again, breaking record after record. Never before did so many tourists chose Bali as the destination for their holi-days. So after some tough years on Bali not only the island, but surely also Nikolaj Jensen, are now back on their feet again.

Straight into tourismNikolai, 41 years today, comes from Kokkedal north of Copenhagen in Denmark. Fresh out of high school, Nikolai enrolled in a “Spies Tour Guide Course” in Spain in 1992. “It was a wonderful experience and I was convinced that tourism was where I belonged. But Spies Travels didn’t agree. I failed,” Nikolai jokes. The next year the young Dane tried again. This time with Larsen Rejser. This time he passed, and for the next ten years Larsen Rejser be-came an important part of his life. After Spain, Greece, other des-

tinations in Europe, and even Kenya in Africa, it was time for Asia. “I lived in Jomtien/Pattaya and worked for Larsen Rejser in the early 90’s but took a break for three months in 1995 when my farther died. Back again in Thailand, I was Destinations Manager for Larsen Rejser in Thailand from 1999 to 2001, with 45 tour guides to sup-port and manage.” Then a wave of mergers swept through the Danish tourism sector. Larsen Rejser became Alletiders Re-jser, then Alletiders became Apollo. “As a destination manager you take a lot of the pressure. For ten years, I loved to go to work every morning. Then suddenly I found that I was not smiling anymore,” Nikolaj says. “I needed a break.”

Just had to quitAt that time Bali had already taken an important place in his heart. So he travelled to Bali to get control of his feelings and thoughts about the future. “I found a wonderful house for rent and celebrated Christmas eve-ning. Back in Thailand I could feel that I just had to stop. I contacted the owner of the house and asked him for his bank account number so I could transfer the deposit for the house”. Six days later he had handed in his resignation in Thailand. Before he left, he supported the two guys who took over from him for half a year - then Nikolaj he was off.

Starting up NickToursNikolai now travelled into a new world on his own with his own travel agency. “I knew a lot about handling airlines, hotel managers, bus drivers and not least tour guides and guest. Still, to be in the buying and selling business in the tourism industry was in many ways something completely new for me,” says Nikolaj. He only knew that he would focus on quality in stead of be the cheapest guys around and sell as much as possible. As a guest he had often been a victim to the cheap agents literally trying to pull potential costumers into their shop. “That is not my style. People

can safely check out my window display without any risk of being as-saulted,” Nikolaj assures. On the other hand, costumers sometimes try to get a lower price by telling him that just down the road they can get the very same tour for half the price. “What can you say? You can only urge them to go down there as soon as possible,” Nikolai says. “If they think they can buy an excellent tour for 1.000 US dollars on a sidewalk, they just have to try. Sometimes the same person returns the very next day and ask me just to deliver a wonderful experience at a decent price,” Nikolaj smiles.

The hard timesBusiness really went well the first months. Until the bombs in Octo-ber 12, 2002. “I was in the northern part of Bali when the bombs exploded and turned this island into chaos,” Niko-lai recalls. “I actually should have been at one of the places that were bombed, but we cancelled because one of my friends got ill.” “But I returned to Sanur and opened my agency the next morn-ing. That close after the bombings people still arrived so things had to be done,” Nikolaj says. But the rest of the time available Nikolaj spent at a hospital answering phone calls. “We had three lists to check when we got calls. One with patient at the hospital. One with people who’s whereabouts were unknown, and one with people we knew for sure were dead. It was very, very tough and difficult to cope with the situation, but it was also very giving”, the Dane insist. A good business partner and friend Stig Vagt Andersen came down from Thailand and evacuated the Danish survivors, and slowly things went back to something as normal as it can be. One of the positive gains for Nikolaj was when his NickTours became a destination centre for Jysk Rejsebureau, a Danish Backpacker specialist. “It took months before guest started to return to Bali. Then we got the SARS. And after that the tsunami. Although Bali is not at all in

the dangerous area, we were mixed up with the rest of Indonesia in the customers minds.” “It was tough time,” Nikolai ad-mits. “But as you can see, we are still here, more than ever before,” her laughs. “Last year was a record year for the Bali tourism and there are no signs that this year will be any less busy.”

Low cost air tickets Thanks to the emergence of low cost airlines, NickTours business has changed in certain ways. “Today, our guests often buy the air tickets themselves and then I will take care of them as long as they are on here - which doesn’t have to be limited to Bali itself. It could also be Papua, or the island of Sulawesi or the Indonesian part of Borneo. This fantastic country has 13.000 island and a wonderful wel-coming people.” Cheaper air-tickets have also meant that visitors often make short trips to other countries during their holidays.

Customers via the internetToday, more and more deals are also done through NickTours’ web-site. Not the least thanks to Niko-laj’s partner in their private life. “He is really fantastic at making homepages so many new custom-ers learn of us that way. As a re-sult, we now sell a lot more tours to guest before they arrive”, says Nikolaj Jensen.

More: www.nicktours.com

Three Days of Inspiration & Vision:

Norway - Asia Business Summit in SingaporeOver three days from 29 September to 1 October, Norwegian businessmen from all over Asia will gather in Singapore for a high paced, top inspirational, visionary look at opportunities and challenges for doing business in a fast changing Asia.

By Gregers Moller

The Norway - Asia Busi-ness Summit is a major regional event for Nor-wegians in Asia. This year, the Norway - Asia

Business Summit takes place on 29 September - 1 October 2011 in Sin-gapore. “The program has been put to-gether to be of interest for Norwegian businessmen in Asia, Asian partners of Norwegian companies and Norwe-gians in Norway with business in Asia. There is no need to be a member of any Norwegian Chamber or Business Association - anyone is welcome to attend the summit,” says Ms. Kjersti Thorvildsen, Head of Secretariat of the Norwegian Business Association (Singapore) - NBAS. Deadline for signing up is on 2 September and the fee is 750 S$ for the summit. The Norway - Asia Business Summit was last year held in Shang-hai in connection with the World Expo. This time it is back in Singa-pore where it will again take place on Sentosa Island at the Sentosa Resort & Spa. “The benefit of Sentosa Island is that it is near and still away from downtown Singapore. If you are do-ing business in Singapore, the temp-tation to drop out of a session to quickly take care of something in the office is not there,” Kjersti Thorvild-sen explains. The summit coincided with

the visit to Singapore of Norway’s Standing Committee of Finance and Economic Affairs, and the Chair of the Committee, Mr. Torgeir Mi-caelsen, will be a Key Note Speaker during the opening session.

Thursday 29 SeptemberRegistration starts on Thursday at 16.00 at the Conference Centre Lobby at the Sentosa Resort & Spa. At 17.00, the Opening Address will be held in the Straits Ballroom by Her Exellency Janne Julsrud, Am-bassador of Norway to Singapore. Welcome & Introduction will then follow by Mr. Erik Borgen, President of the Norwegian Busi-ness Association (Singapore) imme-diately after. Mr. Torgeir Micaelsen, Chair-man of the Standing Committee of Finance and Economic Affairs, will then deliver his Key Note Speech to the participants. Mr. Yngve Slyngstad, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Manage-ment (NBIM), will deliver a second Key Note Speech immediately after. At 18.00, cocktails are served at the Straits Verandah of the Resort and at 19.00 the Buffet Dinner is ready in the Straits Ballroom.

Friday 30 SeptemberOn Friday the program starts at 8.30 with a keynote address by Mr. Tan Choon Shian, Deputy Managing Di-rector or Singapore’s Economic De-

velopment Board. Mr. Tan Choon Shian will share insights and practi-cal examples how Singapore again and again is able to turn risks into rewards and adversity into competi-tive edge. At 9.00 two speakers with exceptional insight and vision will speak under the title “Asia 2020; From West to East - the rise of the rest?” The first speaker will be Mr. Victor D. Norman, Ph.D. Nor-wegian School of Economics and Business Administration and for-mer Norwegian Minister of Labor and Government Administration. The next speaker will be Prof. Jor-gen Orstrom Moller, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Institute of South-east Asian Studies in Singapore and former Ambassador of Denmark to Singapore. The two will talk about how Asia will look in 2020 in a worst case and a best case scenario. How will mega drivers within Politics, Fi-nance, Energy & Transport, Environ-ment, Demographic Composition and Manufacturing develop? What barriers and opportunities will this present for companies in the next decade. After a short coffee break at 10.00, the Friday program continues. At 10.30, Mr. Oliver Tonby, Senior partner and Managing Direc-tor, McKinsey Oil & Gas, Indonesia, will talk about “Cracking the code for Asia - what Norwegian busi-


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nesses can do to capture the biggest growth wave of recent times. This will at 10.50 be followed by a panel discussion between Mr. Oyvind Eriksen, CEO, Aker ASA, Mr. Carl Arnet, CEO, BW Offshore, Mr. Sigve Brekke, President, Telenor Asia, Mr. Thor Jorgen Guttormsen, President, Norwegian Shipowners Association, moderated by the for-mer speaker, Mr. Oliver Tonby.

Are we up for it?After lunch, the first session is head-lined “Are we up for the challenge?” The three speaker Ms. Aase Aulie Michelet, member of the board of Orkla ASA, Norske Skog ASA Cer-maq ASA and Photocure ASA, Mr. Per M. Ristvedt, Managing Partner of Wikborg Rein & Co., Singapore, and the Swedish speaker on business creativity Mr. Frederik Haren. After a coffee break, a panel dis-cussion will sum up the day. The panelists are Ms. Gunn Ovesen, President and CEO, Inno-vation Norway, His Excellency Knut Solem, Ambassador of Norway to the Philippines, Ms. Aase Aulie Michelet, member of the board of Orkla ASA, Norske Skog ASA Cermaq ASA and Photocure ASA, Mr. Victor D. Norman, Ph. D. Nor-wegian School of Economics and Business Administration and former Norwegian Minister of Labor and Government Administration, and Prof. Jorgen Orstrom Moller, Visit-

Three Days of Inspiration & Vision:

Norway - Asia Business Summit in Singapore

ing Senior Research Fellow,Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Sin-gapore and former Ambassador of Denmark to Singapore. At 18.30 there are cocktails followed by a BBQ Dinner by the poolside.

Saturday 1 OctoberThe morning session on Saturday is a closer look at five case stories or Norwegian companies that are and have been making a difference in Asia - and what can be learned from this.

The five companies will be Tele-nor Group, Sarawak Energy Berhad, PT Sulawesi Mini Power - Tinfos AS / KF Gruppen AS, probably Jotun China and finally a company from the Philippines to be selected later. After the lunch at the Ter-race, there is a Norwegian Business Chambers’ Meeting with limited par-ticipation to formally end the Nor-way -Asia Business Summit 2011.

Spouse programmeSpouses are welcome to the cock-tail receptions and meals on all three

days. Apart from that, a guided tour of Singapore followed by a lunch downtown is offered on Friday and in the afternoon a spa treatment is suggested at one of the Sentosa Resort & Spa’s tempting pampering spas. The spouse program is flexible and can be selected for certain parts only.

The latest program and application form can be downloaded from www.nbas.org.sg


Evil

Medium

Said with all due respect, strawberries from Thailand can not

compete with Scandinavian berries. In Asia, you have the pineapple, the mango, the…… But we got the strawberries. Conditions like growing up in the cool nights and with many hours of daylight gives the Scandinavian strawberries an unbeatable intensity in both flavor and aroma. But you should not give up on the Asian strawberries, they just need to be upgraded. That is easily done by adding black pepper and Balsamic vinegar. Black pepper and balsamic vinegar will intensify the flavor of the strawberries and bring out their sweetness, and now the berries are great with both sweet and savory dishes. Try them in a green salad with goat cheese, or serve them for dessert over ice cream or cake.

Ingredients:•500gramsofripestrawberries,rinsed,hulled,andsliced•3tablespoonssugar•11/2tablespoonsgood-qualitybalsamicvinegar•Freshlygroundcoarseblackpepper

Preparation:•Placetheslicedberriesinamediumnon-reactivebowl(suchasglass).•Sprinkletheberrieswiththesugarandbalsamicvinegar,andtossgentlyto coat. Allow the berries to macerate in the vinegar and sugar mixture for about 15 minutes.•Add4to5grindsofcoarseblackpeppertotheberries,andtosstocoat.Allow the flavors to blend about 5 minutes more before serving.

Enjoy!

Strawberries with Black Pepper and Balsamic Vinegar

For most Scandinavians summertime means strawberries. Lots of strawberries. Au naturel with cream and sugar or as the main ingredients in cakes, pies and currant pudding.


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ScandAsia Southeast Asia - August 2011